D'Amato's Role Investigated in La Guardia Airport Deal

D'Amato's Role Investigated in La Guardia Airport Deal
New York Times

Published: December 24, 2003
  

The airplane refueling trucks had been ordered. A $100 million insurance policy 
had been retained. An operations director had been hired. All that Jet Center, 
a refueling contractor based in Florida, needed to start servicing private 
planes at La Guardia Airport was the formal approval from the Port Authority of 
New York and New Jersey board.

Then the calls from Alfonse M. D'Amato, the former New York senator turned 
lobbyist, started to come in.

Mr. D'Amato and his lobbying firm had been hired by the losing bidder, 
Signature Flight Support, which since 1993 has had the contract to refuel and 
service corporate and other privately owned small jets and prop planes at La 
Guardia. Mr. D'Amato said yesterday that he had spoken personally with at least 
three members of the Port Authority board who were appointed by Gov. George E. 
Pataki.

Suddenly, late last month, nearly a year after the bids were submitted, the 
Port Authority board decided to informally extend Signature's contract and 
start the bidding all over again, ignoring advice from its own staff.

Mr. D'Amato and his client had won. Jet Center had lost.

The turn of events has set off an investigation into whether a politically 
connected and powerful interloper was able to use his clout to derail the 
standard contracting rules to benefit his client, as some critics are 
contending, or whether an intervention on behalf of a worthy contractor 
prevented the Port Authority from making a mistake, as Mr. D'Amato contends.

"We are not going to prejudge this," said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a 
Democrat from Westchester County who is chairman of a committee that has begun 
investigating the matter. "What we have is enough information to make clear we 
have to know more."

The dispute over the contract was first reported on Sunday in The New York Post.

Fort Lauderdale Jet Center submitted the lowest bid to the Port Authority and 
in February was notified that it could expect to begin refueling jets at La 
Guardia in May, after the Signature contract expired, said Edward J. Zwirn, Jet 
Center's chief operating officer.

Mr. Zwirn said he is convinced he knows how the deal fell through. "D'Amato 
influenced it," Mr. Zwirn said. "The integrity of the public bidding process in 
my mind was sacrificed due to political influence. It is not fair. It is 
discouraging."

Jet Center expected to do $6 million to $8 million a year in business to refuel 
and service private planes under the contract, and agreed to pay the authority 
as much as an estimated $840,000 in fees a year as part of the deal. Signature, 
by comparison, paid the Port Authority $694,273 last year. It agreed to 
increase its payments next year, though slightly below Jet Center's amount.

E-mail messages sent by the Port Authority to Jet Center early this year make 
clear that the agency was on its way to awarding the company a three-year 
contract to take over from Signature. 

"Our risk management division found the attached certificate of insurance 
satisfactory," said one e-mail message in April to Mr. Zwirn from a Port 
Authority contract administrator. "Before commencement of operations, the 
original must be forwarded to our risk management division."

Mr. D'Amato's lobbying firm, Park Strategies L.L.C., was retained in May for a 
$25,000 initial fee, in addition to a monthly charge that the former senator 
would not disclose.

Mr. D'Amato, who is legendary for his broad network of friends in the 
Republican Party, especially in New York State, said yesterday that he had 
spoken personally with Charles A. Gargano, vice chairman of the Port Authority 
board and a longtime ally of Governor Pataki, as well as with Commissioners 
Bruce A. Blakeman and Michael J. Chasanoff, who are both active in the 
Republican Party on Long Island. 

Mr. D'Amato said he had expressed concerns about the way Jet Center handled its 
bid. The three board members did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

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